Identify Keywords:

• Before beginning research, state the topic of the search concisely (in one sentence). An example of a search statement which is expressed succinctly is:
  How is psychotherapy used in treating adolescent victims of child abuse in the United States.
• From this search statement identify the main concepts of the search. In the above search statement, psychotherapy and child abuse victims would represent the two main concepts of the search. The concepts of the adolescent age group and the geographic area of United States would enable the search to be narrowed even further.
• Brainstorm a list of keyword synonyms for each concept identified above. Use these keywords throughout a search to find variant terms used to describe the main concepts. Different indexes may use different terminology to categorize the same concept. (Remember, as the search progresses, some new keywords will be discovered to add to the list and some keywords on the list in the beginning will be discarded if found to be inappropriate.) Sample lists of keyword synonyms are shown below for finding information on the topic psychotherapy for adolescent child abuse victims in the United States:

Concept 1: psychotherapy (type of therapy)	Concept 2: adolescents (age group)	Concept 3: child abuse victims	Concept 4: United States (geographic region)
clinical sociology	teenagers	emotionally abused children	state names
crisis intervention	youth	battered child syndrome	America
mental health counseling	young adults	sexually abused children	USA

• Link to University of Minnesota Libraries' Choosing Good Keywords to Search for Articles page for a further discussion of how to choose and apply keywords in a search.

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Locate Background Information:

• At the start of a research project, consult specialized dictionaries or encyclopedias to obtain a concise overview of a concept, school of thought, or a particular person's contribution to the field of psychology. The Psychology Sources page contains a list of specialized dictionaries and encyclopedias available in Owens Library applicable to psychology assignments.
• If statistical information is needed, link to the Statistics Sources page or the WWW Government Resources page.

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Search the Library Catalog:

• Subject Searching:

Subject headings and subdivisions are categories used in the Library Catalog to classify the content of books and other materials available in Owens Library. A subject search can be narrowly focused and if it is successful produce relevant results. If a subject search does not produce good results, try to identify keywords and then do a keyword search. There are many related terms for the subject heading Psychology. Click here to link to these related subject headings. Psychology subject headings often have several subdivisions. Typically psychology subdivisions are structured as shown below:

Geographic location -- Time Period

An example of a psychology subject heading is given below:

Psychology -- United States -- 20th century

When entering subject headings in the library catalog search form leave off all punctuation and capital letters. For the subject heading Psychotherapy -- United States -- Evaluation enter psychotherapy united states evaluation.

Many prominent figures in the field of psychology have subject headings which can refer to books or other items with biographical information and critical evaluations of their work. Subject headings for individuals appear like the examples shown below. When entering a person's name as a subject heading in the library catalog search form leave off all punctuation and capital letters. For the subject heading Jung, C. G. enter Jung c g:

Jung, C. G. (Carl Gustav), 1875-1961.

• Keyword Searching:

Citations for books and other materials in Owens Library on psychology may also be retrieved by using a keyword search. With keyword searching, search terms can be combined with the operators and, or, not. A sample keyword search is shown below:

cognitive and psychology and research

Read tips for subject and keyword searching in the Frequently Asked Questions section of the Library Catalog.

Truncation allows users to stem words or retrieve root words with several endings. The truncation symbol in the Library Catalog is a question mark (*). The search shown below will locate records in the Library Catalog that include the words psychiatry, psychiatrist, or psychiatric.

psychiat*

Keyword searches may include nesting. In the search below, the nested terms enclosed in parentheses will be searched first and the results of that search will be added to the other term with the "and" connector. The nested terms within the parentheses are usually combined with an "or":

psychiat* and (engl* or Brit* or united kingdom)

Qualifying a search allows users to look for information in a specific field of a catalog record such as the author, title, subject or note field. The search shown below locates the word statistics in records with mental health in the su (subject) field only.

Statistics and su mental health

• Read tips about truncating, nesting, and qualifying searches in the Frequently Asked Questions section of the Library Catalog.

For advice on how to conduct other types of searches such as how to find videos or the call number and location of periodicals available in Owens Library, check the Frequently Asked Questions page of the Library Catalog.

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Search Other Library Catalogs:

• Use Other Library Catalogs to search for books not available in at Owens Library. Order these books through Interlibrary Loan.

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Find Psychology Periodical Articles:

Use periodical databases to locate article citations and summaries on psychology topics. The most comprehensive psychology database is PsycINFO. A concise list and description of all Owens Library periodical databases appropriate for psychology research is available on the Find the Database You Need page under Psychology/Counseling.

• For more suggestions about appropriate databases for psychology research check the Find Psychology Articles section of the Psychology WWW Resources page.
• Be sure to use the keyword synonyms formulated at the beginning of the search and refined during the library catalog search as search terms in the periodical indexes. Concepts for psychology topics may be referred to by variant terms. Different indexes may use different terms to describe the same concept.
• The truncation symbol for most periodical databases accessible from Owens Library is an asterisk (*).

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Use Print Sources in Owens Library:

• Use the bibliography entitled Psychology Sources to locate research materials available in Owens Library.
• Search for psychology topics in the Library Catalog. Read Searching Tips listed above to learn how to focus search strategy for psychology topics.
• Use the bibliographies in books, journal articles, Web documents or other sources to identify related information about psychology topics. Sources not available in Owens Library may be ordered through Interlibrary Loan.

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Select & Evaluate WWW Resources:

• Use the Psychology WWW Resources page to locate Internet resources recommended by Owens Library information professionals.
• Use the Searching Tips & Tricks page to learn how to enter focused, efficient searches in Internet search engines recommended by Owens Library information professionals.
• Evaluate the psychology Web sites found with search engines using the criteria suggested on the Evaluating Web Sites page.

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